Local History and Genealogy Reference books that we have in our family history library, organized by subject and Dewey Decimal Number. I would be happy to do a quick look up for you; please just comment below to get in touch! Or, click on the link to WorldCat to locate it at a library near you.
The list below includes physical materials in my personal collection. Some of the digital resources that I use can be found on my Digital Library page.
DeKalb County, IL Collection
| Call number & Year | Author(s) | Title |
|---|---|---|
| 373.77328 GK 1974 | Genoa-Kingston High School | Reflections (Genoa-Kingston High School yearbook) |
| 373.77328 GK 1975 | Genoa-Kingston High School | Reflections (Genoa-Kingston High School yearbook) |
| 373.77328 GK 1976 | Genoa-Kingston High School | Reflections (Genoa-Kingston High School yearbook) |
| 373.77328 GK 1977 | Genoa-Kingston High School | Reflections (Genoa-Kingston High School yearbook) |
| 929.5 DO 1993 | Doss, Juanita | Gone but not forgotten: Veterans buried in Elmwood Cemetery, Sycamore, Ill. |
| 977.328 AC 2013 | DeKalb County Historical-Genealogical Society | Acres of change: a history of DeKalb County, Illinois, 1963-2012 |
| 977.328 AT 1975 | DeKalb County Historical Society | Combined atlases of DeKalb County, Illinois (reprint of 1871, 1892, 1905, and 1929 atlases) |
| 977.328 AT 1892 | D.W. Ensign & Co. | Plat book of De Kalb County, Illinois : drawn and compiled from personal observations, actual surveys and county records |
| 977.328 AT 1871 | Thompson and Everts | Combination atlas map of DeKalb County, Illinois |
| 977.328 AT 1929 | Thrift Press | Atlas and plat book of De Kalb County, Illinois |
| 977.328 AT 1947 | True Republican | DeKalb County Farm Atlas and Business Guide |
| 977.328 AT 1965 | Rockford Map Publishers | Three year atlas and plat book, DeKalb County, Illinois: 1963, 1964, 1965 |
| 977.328 BA 1939 | Bar Docket for DeKalb County, Illinois Circuit Court for February Term of 1939 | |
| 977.328 BE 2013 | Beasley, Nancy M. | The Underground Railroad in DeKalb County, Illinois |
| 977.328 BI 2004 | Bigolin, Stephen J. | A journey through DeKalb County, vol. III |
| 977.328 DE 2017- | DeKalb County Historical – Genealogical Society | Cornsilk, 2017 – (Vol. 36, Issue 3 – current) |
| 977.328 DE 1988 | DeKalb County Magazine, July 1988 (Vol. 1, Issue 3) and August 1988 (Vol. 1, Issue 4) | |
| 977.328 GK 1976 | Genoa-Kingston Bicentennial Commission | Genoa-Kingston bicentennial history and program |
| 977.328 HI 2004 | Higgins, Jo Fredell | DeKalb (Images of America) |
| 977.328 HO 1919 | An honor roll : containing a pictorial record of the gallant and courageous men from DeKalb County, Illinois, U.S.A., who served in the Great War, 1917–1918–1919 | |
| 977.328 KE 1876 | Kett, Henry F. | The Voters and Tax-Payers of DeKalb County, Illinois |
| 977.328 TO 2006 | Townsend, Lucy and Marcia G. Wilson | Rural Schools Journeys: A Legacy of Learning, Histories of the One-room Schools in Dekalb County, Illinois |
| 977.328025 DE 2009 | DeKalb County Historical Resources Guide |
Illinois Collection
| Call number & Year | Author(s) | Title |
|---|---|---|
| 378.773 FR 1964 | Freitag, Alfred | College with a cause: a history of Concordia Teachers College |
| 378.773 KO 2014 | Kohut, Hannah | Faithfully onward, ever upward: 150 years of Concordia University Chicago |
| 929.107207731 DU 2005 | DuMelle, Grace | Finding your Chicago Ancestors |
| 929.3773 IL 1986 | Illinois State Genealogical Society | Prairie Pioneers of Illinois, vol. 1 |
| 929.3773 IL 1999-2017 | Illinois State Genealogical Society | Illinois State Genealogical Society Quarterly (Vol. 31-38, 43-49) |
| 929.377324 LO 1978 | Lombard Suburban Genealogical Society | Genealogical Sources: DuPage County, Illinois |
| 977.3005 IL 2013 | Illinois State Historical Society | Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society (Vol. 106, No. 3-4, Autumn/Winter 2013) |
| 977.31 HU 2012 | Hussey-Arntson, Kathy and Patrick Leary | Wilmette (Images of America) |
| 977.323 AT 1966 | Directory Service Company | Farm and Ranch Directory of Kane County, Illinois |
| 977.323 ED 2001 | Edwards, Jim and Wynette | Kane County in vintage postcards |
| 977.337 BU 1994 | Bureau County Genealogical Society | The Complete Name Index to The Voters and Taxpayers of Bureau County, Illinois 1877 |
Early America Collection
| Call number & Year | Author(s) | Title |
|---|---|---|
| 929.20973 CO 1975 | Colket, Meredith B. | Founders of Early American Families: Emigrants from Europe 1607-1657 |
| 929.3 VI 1976 | Virkus, Frederick A., ed. | Immigrant Ancestors: A List of 2,500 Immigrants to America before 1750 |
| 929.341 BU 1978 | Burke, Bernard | The roll of Battle Abbey |
| 929.374 BA 1976 | Banks, Charles Edward | The English ancestry and homes of the Pilgrim Fathers |
| 929.374 HO 1974 | Holmes, Frank R. | Directory of the Ancestral Heads of New England Families 1620-1700 |
| 929.374 RO 1989 | Roser, Susan | Mayflower Increasings for three generations |
| 929.3744 CR 1930 | Crawford, Mary Caroline | Famous Families of Massachusetts (Vol. 2) |
| 929.3744 ES 1918 | Essex Institute | Gravestone inscriptions and records of tomb burials in the Granary Burying Ground, Boston, Mass., 1918 |
| 929.3744 OT 1979 | Otis, Amos | Genealogical notes of Barnstable Families (Vol. 1, A-H) |
| 929.3744 PO 1977 | Pope, Charles Henry | Pioneers of Massachusetts: a descriptive list, drawn from records of the colonies, towns, and churches, and other contemporaneous documents |
| 929.3744 RO 1990 | Roser, Susan E. | Mayflower Marriages from the files of George Ernest Bowman |
| 929.3744 WA 1978 | Wakefield, Robert S. and Charles T. Libby | Plymouth Colony Marriages to 1650, by Robert S. Wakefield, and Mary Chilton’s title to celebrity, by Charles T. Libby (published together) |
| 929.374485 RO 1987 | Rounds, H. L. Peter | Abstracts of Bristol County, Massachusetts probate records, 1687-1745 |
| 929.375665 LI 1992 | Linn, Jo White | Surry County, North Carolina, Wills 1771-1827 |
| 973.524 PE 1999 | Pearson, Gardner W. | Records of the Massachusetts Volunteer Militia: Called out by the Governor of Massachusetts to suppress a threatened invasion during the War of 1812-’14 |
| 974 HO 2012 | Hollick, Martin E. | New Englanders in the 1600s: A guide to genealogical research published between 1980 and 2010, expanded edition |
| 974.402 BA 1975 | Banks, Charles Edward | The Planters of the Commonwealth; a study of the emigrants and emigration in colonial times |
| 974.482 FI 1985 | Fiore, Jordan D., ed. | Mourt’s Relation: A Journal of the Pilgrims of Plymouth |
| 974.482 GA 1900 | Garrett, Edmund H. | The Pilgrim Shore |
| 974.482 HI 1936 & 1941 | Hills, Leon Clark | The Mayflower Planters at Plymouth, Mass. 1620 and other newcomers to Ye Olde Colonie (Cape Cod series, vols. I and II) |
| 974.482 NO 1925 | Noyes, Ethel J.R.C | The Women of the Mayflower and Women of Plymouth Colony |
| 974.482 SH 1955 | Shaw, Hubert Kinney | Families of the Pilgrims (1620) |
| 974.482 ST 1976 | Stoddard, Francis R. | The Truth about the Pilgrims |
| 974.69 HI 1968 | Hinman, R.R. | Catalogue of the Names of the First Puritan Settlers of the Colony of Connecticut… |
| 974.69 MA 1990 | Majdalany, Jeanne | The Early Settlement of Stamford, Connecticut 1641-1700 |
Other Local History Collection
| Call number & Year | Author(s) | Title | Subject |
|---|---|---|---|
| 362.730973 CO 2006 | Concordia Lutheran Ministries | The Concordia Story, 1881-2006 | Pittsburgh Region (Penn.) – History |
| 362.732 CA 2022 | Cantrell, Joann and James Wudarczyk | Pittsburgh’s Orphans and Orphanages | Pittsburgh Region (Penn.) – History |
| 977.849300431 OW 1989? | Owens, Robert et. al. | Here We Speak Low German = Hier snackt wi Plattdütsch | Benton County (Mo.) – History |
| 977.849300431 TR 1996 | Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Congregation – A Centennial History 1896 – 1996 | Benton County (Mo.) – History |
General Genealogy & Preservation Reference Collection
| Call number & Year | Author(s) | Title | Subject |
|---|---|---|---|
| 020.72 CL 2016 | Clark, Rhonda L. and Nicole Wedemeyer Miller | Fostering Family History Services: A Guide for Librarians, Archivists, and Volunteers | Libraries – Special Collections – Genealogy |
| 020.72 SC 2018 | Schultz, Janice Lindgren | Helping patrons find their roots: a genealogy handbook for librarians | Libraries – Special Collections – Genealogy |
| 025.21 MA 2015 | Marquis, Kathy and Leslie Waggener | Local History reference collections for public libraries | Local history -Bibliography -Methodology |
| 025.21 PH 2017 | Phillips, Faye | Creating a local history archive at your public library | Libraries – Special Collections – Local History materials |
| 025.2816 BE 2014 | Berger, Sidney E. | Rare books and special collections | Libraries – Special Collections |
| 025.84 RI 2010 | Ritzenthaler, Mary Lynn | Preserving archives and manuscripts | Archival materials–Conservation and restoration |
| 025.86 CA 2016 | Caro, Susanne | Digitizing your collection: Public library success stories | Digital preservation |
| 025.86 MA 2018 | Marshall, Brianna H., ed. | The complete guide to personal digital archiving | Digital preservation |
| 771.46 TA 2001 | Taylor, Maureen A. | Preserving Your Family Photographs: How to Organize, Present, and Restore Your Precious Family Images | Photographs – Conservation and restoration |
| 808.066929 PO 1995 | Polking, Kirk | Writing Family Histories and Memoirs | Genealogy – Authorship |
| 808.066929 ST 2014 | Stratton, Penelope L. and Henry B. Hoff | Guide to Genealogical Writing: How to Write and Publish Your Family History | Genealogy – Authorship |
| 929.1 AL 2011 | Allen, Desmond Walls | Family History Detective: a Step-by-Step Guide to Investigating your Family Tree | Genealogy |
| 929.1 EL 2018 | Elder, Diana and Nicole Dyer | Research Like a Pro: a Genealogist’s Guide | Genealogy |
| 929.1 QU 2013 | Quillen, W. Daniel | Mastering Immigration & Naturalization Records, 2nd ed. | Genealogy |
| 929.1072 FL 2004 | Fleming, Ann C. | Organized Family Historian: How to File, Manage, and Protect your Genealogical Research and Heirlooms | Genealogy – Organization systems |
| 929.1072 WO 2016 | Wood, Marian Burk | Planning a future for your family’s past: how to organize your genealogy materials, make decisions about your collection, and pass what you know to future generations | Genealogy – Organization systems |
| 929.1072041 MI 2000 | Milner, Paul | Genealogist’s Guide to Discovering your English Ancestors | Genealogy – England |
| 929.108931 BR 1995 | Brandt, Edward R. et. al. | Germanic Genealogy: A Guide to Worldwide Sources and Migration Patterns | Genealogy – Germany |
| 929.3485 CL 2004 | Clemensson, Per | Your Swedish Roots: A Step by Step Handbook | Genealogy – Sweden |
The Family History Librarian 
Regarding “Rural Schools Journeys: A Legacy of Learning, Histories of the One-room Schools in Dekalb County, Illinois”. Can you tell me whether it has any photos of the Browne (or Brown) school in Milan township, DeKalb county? It was original Milan Township District #1 and later changed to #80 and eventually closed in 1952. A similar book about DeKalb county rural schools provided a few details about the Browne school but did not contain photos of that particular school.
I do have an aerial photo from 1939 but it’s what you would expect. 😦
thank you
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Hi Michael! There is some information about Brown School in that book, but no photo. Have you tried contacting the Joiner History Room in Sycamore? They have a lot of photos of area schools. Many of the photos were included in the book, but perhaps they’ve acquired a photo of it on the time since the book was published.
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